tt AA - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 30, 2006 TERRACE Ss TANDARD > ' ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 - PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. » V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 - FAX: (250) 638-8432 WEB: www.terracestandard.com _ ' EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com Power play NOTTINGHAM IN England is famous for more : than being the home of Robin Hood. As the 1800s began, weavers in and around the central Eng-. lish town enjoyed status and rewards for the fine craftsmanship that. went into handmade stockings ’ “and lace. That changed because: of the’ Industrial Revolu-« ‘tion. The advent of power looms and other ma- ' chines gathered together in factories meant more could be produced for less, threatening the i income and existence of the weavers... ° A mini-revolution broke out whereby the ma- chines were.damaged as weavers and their allies | sought to restore wages and benefits. reduced be- cause of industrialization: They became known as. .Luddites, after.a perhaps mythical person called Ned Ludd. Thereafter; the term Luddite or Lud- ; dism was attached to any opposition to industrial- _. ization or technological change. All of this’ points out that what Alcan wants to do in Kitimat i isn’t new. The planned expenditure | _- of $2 billion for a new aluminum smelter to pro- duce more metal with fewer workers (an estimated cut.of 500 people from the current 1,500-person workforce) continues the theme of tech change. It’s something that has happened two or three” times in the last 50 years in virtually every B.C. town that has a woods-based industry. Newer mills equal more production with fewer workers. But there’s a wrinkle in this theme in Kitimat . and i it is that Alcan.won’t be using all of the pow-- "er it produces for its new smelter — it’]] sell any ‘surplus from its Kemano generating facilities to. B.C. Hydro. It’s a good deal for Alcan because it produces some of the cheapest power around, meaning it'll realize a very healthy profit. . | And that raises the question of whether a private corporation should profit handsomely by selling a - product from a public resource, which is water, to a public corporation. — | “When he was the Liberal MLA for Skeena, Roger Harris mused that any power not used by Alcan be sold cheaply within the watershed from whence it was generated. While there won’t be as much power now for sale as first thought, it would stimulate activity.over and above whatever Alcan has planned, replacing at least some, of the jobs ; lost when’ the new smelter comes on line. Serving the Terrace and Thomhitt area. Publisned on Wedrescay of - It’s an idea worth pursuing for it recognizes that Alcan’s $2 billion plan — the largest, private capital investment in this province in decades — ‘serves as a base for the northwest and preserves the “sinelter first” aspect of this new power sales * deal with B.C. Hydro. Such an idea also recognizes that/a public re- source might best be used in the area from where it originated: It’s not Luddism for it embraces the idea of change and thinking outside of the box. But it is a hint of Robin Hood. ' PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link - ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach | PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur ' NEWS: Sarah A. Zimmerman ’ COMMUNITY: Dustin Quezada . NEWS/SPORTS: Margaret Speirs FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping. Carolyn Anderson CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Alanna Bentham — ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Bert Husband, Todd Holkestad: AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik PRODUCTION: Susan Credgeur SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62.00 per year: . Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54.55; ' - Out of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73 | Outside of Canada (6 months) $156.91(+10.98 GST)=167.89 _ MEMBER CF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION AND "B.C. PRESS COUNCIL (www bopresscouncil. org) 2005 WINNER CCNA BETTER NEWSPAPERS COMPETITION 2 3 each weex at 3210 Clinton Sues 3 552 Black Press Stories, photogranhs, illusirations, designs and i Nest 45 in the Terrace Standarc are the orvoety of the cooy- right horders, including Black Press Lid., iS ifiustration reoro services and acvertising agencies. , . Reproduction in whole or in part. without written permission, 18 specifically pronibigs. ; Authorized as second-class mail pending tre Post Oviice Department, tor payment of postage in cash. # Bs ~ Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents FEDERAL LIBERAL | LEADERSHIP} CONVENTION CANCELLED | DUE TO LACK OF | _ CANDIDATES ATL TNL iF ALL. LIBERALS WITH QUESTIONABLE JUDGEMENT | | WERE ERADICATED FROM THE PARTY Kitimat has. its merchants of misery — THE CRAZINESS coming of from Kitimat over Alcan’s: $2- billion smelter announcement * is beyond belief. KitimatmayorRick Wozney >is quoted in the Globe and. Mail as stating “Alcan’s plan is to build:a° smaller, more’ ef- : ficient smelter than what exists ’ now.” In fact, the new smelter is a full 60 per cent larger than the existing smelter. Focusing on the 500 jobs: being lost is absurd. What we .. » really have is’an investment in ‘a new facility that will ensure — the security of high-paying . aluminum jobs for the next 35 ., to.50 years. . __ One-look.up the highway at. ' Skeena Cellulose tells the sto-- ry of what:-happens when you~ don’t modernize. You don’t. lose a few jobs, you lose them © all. The other comment coming from Kitimat critics is that a larger smelter consuming all the power available would em- - ploy 1,200 -1,300 people. This may make a good sound bite but it just isn’t the . case. Alcan has chosen a form __ of modernization that will refit the current infrastructure.. The plant will employ about 1,000. A larger smelter would be a new stand-alone facility, incorporating a greater num- _ber of efficiencies, employing also about 1,000 people.. More aluminum does not equate to oogwe -ROGER HARRIS more employment. A recent District of Kiti- - mat.ad boldly states “Power » Sales Increase.” What a bunch of bunk. The new smelter will consume more power than ever before in the smelting process, leaving: considerable less power available for sale into the grid... The smelter first provision in the deal ensures that ina low water situation, like what hap- pened in 2001, smelter needs would come ahead of the con- tract to supply B.C. Hydro. It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that the deal that ‘established the sale ‘of electricity to B.C. Hydro. as the priority was negotiated in the 1990s by the then NDP. government. This one finally reverses that mistake. ~ Then there are the com-- ments around the vicinity of the “works.” . comical if the impacts weren’t > so tragic. . The “works” as s described in the 1950s agreement includes - the towns and industrial sites _but also the dams. and spill- ways. The purpose of this defi- * nition, was to capture all of the affected parties to the 1950s project. Well, the dams and © spillways are at the other end » of the reservoir which is why it is important that any plan’ around Alcan include those ‘folks as well. * Tt is the reason First Nations attended “the | announcement and welcomed it. They cer- tainly have not benefited from the initial 1950s agreement but ‘have a real opportunity to be part of the future of this one, something that seems to have been lost on the leadership of the District of Kitimat. This is a good news an- nouncement. The deal address- es the concerns around power sales in a way that works for the community and the com- pany. Rather than these mer- chants of misery continuing to iry and tell the world Kitimat is dying, they should be using this announcement as. a plat- form to secure even more in- vestments. That is important because now the hard work really be- ‘gins. We. know that over the” ~»next six years, whether Alcan This is almost | expands or not, 500 people will retire. This is a golden op- portunity to sit down and plan in a way that gives these folks . a reason to stay in the north » and in our communities. — It’s time to review our sup- port facilities for seniors, look “at our recreation and social amenities. We should be talking with — senior organizations today to draft and implement a strategy that could make us the magnet communities in the north for - r etirees. . When you look at numerous projects on the horizon for the « northwest, the real question is’ how will we attract the work- - force that will be needed over the. next decade? ‘This may market our region to the world from a worker, not tourist, per- spective? With the global attention this project will bring now. is the time to make every effort to attract new investment to the area. The security of Alcan’s reinvestment in the northwest makes our area even more at- tractive. ° But one thing is for sure. The negative campaign be- ing waged today by Kitimat will only make that task a lot harder. . — _— WHEN PEDOPHILES go on- line, besides titillating ‘them- , selves viewing pornographic photos and videos of children -being molested, even tortured, they exchange methods for getting close.to potential vic- tims. This is one of the find-. ings of a four month probe by. The New York Times into pedophiles’ Internet commu- nications. a Fellow internet pedophiles offer a string of ways to ap- proach vulnerable children often under the noses of caring » parents: becoming a counsel-. or at .children’s camps. serv-: ing as a disc jockey at teen parties, or working at a water. theme park. Pedophiles who _ become pediatric nurses, pedi- atric gynecologists, and piano teachers all have their prey de- livered to them. Some pedophiles are more innovative. One placed an In- ternet * seeking an overnight baby sit- ter for her 4-year-old daughter. ‘The Times doesn’t mention how well the ploy worked. Many take the longer route, marrying a single Mom to get close to her children. Pedo- phile parents find their own children decoy | playmates who then become fodder for “help wanted” ad pre- tending to be a single mother | THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI- the parent’s S sexual. appetite. Foster parenting. too, yields a made-to-order victim with lit- ‘tle if any random supervision to.rescue the child. a But schoolteacher was the preferred Open Sesame role. ‘In addition to learning ef- ficient methods for notching their belts, pedophiles online comfort each other into believ- ing what they do to children is far from harmful to the child; that it is in fact beneficial. “Acts of molestation are often celebrated as demon- -_strations of love,” writes New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald. “They fail to see molestation of a child as il- legal or psychologically ruin- otis.” Guess they never fol -lowed news reports of children molested at residential schools or by Catholic priests. One pedophile disclosed on the internet that he and his 10-year-old daughter were - two months into a “consen- sual sexual relationship.” Af- ter supportive feedback from other pedophiles, he wrote, “I thought having a sexual attrac- tion to my daughter was bad. I now do not feel guilty or con- flicted.” “In essence,” writes Eichen- -wald, “they deem, potentially injurious acts and beliefs harm- less. This is accomplished in part by denying that a victim is injured, and by condemning ~ critics (such as therapists).” Pedophiles go - further, Pedophiles feed off each other - willing to invest weeks, even months, inching closer to their quarry while they “groom” the child to accept their advances. In the words of one internet pedophile, “In the presence of women, always be friendly to. children.” Pedophiles claim ‘minors _ seek sex with adults, and it is blaming the child for enticing © them to commit their. illegal, . psychologically: destructive behaviour. They may interpret _any little movement by the child, such as-her skirt expos- ing her underpants while she cartwheels, as an invitation to touching. They also blame minors with webcam sites for offering temptation. Except for violent. pedo- philes who torture or murder | their victims, pedophiles tend ‘ to be pleasant, patient people the child's legal right to do so. One man. bluntly responded, “Believe it or not, most young children are NOT anxious to have sex with adult men.” As part of Eichenwald’s . four-month investigation of pedophile chat rooms, he met Justin Berry. For five years pedophiles generously paid Berry to perform sexually be- fore his webcam. _ From Berry the Times ob- tained the names and credit card information for the 1,500 people’ who paid Berry to per- form on camera. The Times analyzed the backgrounds of 300 of them. “A majority of the sample consisted of doc- _tors and lawyers, businessmen and teachers, many of whom. work with children on a daily - basis.” Those findings disturb me, but help explain why Cana- da’s justice system treats pe- dophiles so tenderly. vehetete cet lee ce ee a et